


No hand Holding Allowed

by Mystical_giggles



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Bex to the rescue, Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 06:08:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20577734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mystical_giggles/pseuds/Mystical_giggles
Summary: “We haven’t done anything, right?”TJ shook his head. “Not that I know of.”Cyrus looked towards the door that lead into Metcalf’s office and bounced his leg anxiously. He could feel TJ’s eyes on him and after a few seconds TJ softly said, “hey, I’m sure everything is fine.” Cyrus looked towards him. “Maybe we aren’t in trouble. Maybe it’s about something else.”Cyrus gave him a skeptical look. “Like what. An award in best golf cart driving?”TJ pressed his lips together. “Okay, maybe not.”(Or:When Cyrus and TJ get wrongfully sent to the principals office, Andi and Buffy suggest they ask Bex for help. )





	No hand Holding Allowed

**Author's Note:**

> Cw: Homophobia

“Can Cyrus Goodman and TJ Kippen please report to the principal’s office.”

Those weren’t exactly the words Cyrus wanted to hear during his first period on a Monday. To be honest he didn’t ever want to hear those words, no matter the day or period. Those words could only mean one thing; trouble.

And even though Cyrus might be a little more of a troublemaker than he used to be, the thought of getting in trouble for something when he had no idea what it could be, wasn’t a pleasant one.

His teacher, Mrs. Clarke, turned around from the black board she had been writing on and locked eyes with Cyrus. 

“I guess you should leave Mr. Goodman,” she said with a tone that indicated that she had no sympathy at all for Cyrus’s situation, which Cyrus didn’t think was fair at all. He hadn’t done anything wrong.

He nodded and stood up on shaky legs. As he walked towards the classroom door one of his classmates said, “uh oh, the lovebirds are in trouble.”

Several of the students laughed and Cyrus could feel his cheeks heat up. He still wasn’t used to people knowing about him and TJ since they hadn’t been public for very long.

He walked out of the room as fast as he could and closed the door behind him. 

As he walked towards Metcalf’s office he desperately tried to search through his memories for anything that could have landed him and TJ a visit to the principal. The only thing he could think of was the golf cart incident but that had been months ago. And it wouldn’t make sense since they had already dealt with the repercussions of that. 

But he couldn’t come up with anything else. Cyrus wasn’t exactly a troublemaker and neither was TJ, at least not anymore. 

The closer Cyrus got to Metcalf’s office, the more his hands started to sweat. 

He opened the door to the little waiting room outside of the office and saw that TJ was already there, seated on one of four chairs against the wall. He looked up and Cyrus could immediately tell that he was just as confused as Cyrus about why they were currently there. 

“What is going on?” Cyrus shout-whispered to TJ as he sat down beside him.

TJ turned his body toward Cyrus and leaned in closer. “I have no idea,” he said.

“We haven’t done anything, right?”

TJ shook his head. “Not that I know of.” 

Cyrus looked towards the door that lead into Metcalf’s office and bounced his leg anxiously. He could feel TJ’s eyes on him and after a few seconds TJ softly said, “hey, I’m sure everything is fine.” Cyrus looked towards him. “Maybe we aren’t in trouble. Maybe it’s about something else.”

Cyrus gave him a skeptical look. “Like what. An award in best golf cart driving?”

TJ pressed his lips together. “Okay, maybe not.”

Cyrus let out a long shaky breath and started to bounce his leg again. 

“But,” TJ said. “Whatever it is, I’m sure everything will work out.” He took one of Cyrus’s hands and squeezed it lightly. “Okay?”

Cyrus looked in to his green eyes and finally relaxed a little. Surely everything would be fine. He smiled at TJ and then the door to the principal’s office opened. 

Metcalf was wearing tired expression as he faced the two boys and said, “Mr. Kippen, Mr. Goodman.” Cyrus saw his eyes flick to where his and TJ’s hands were interlaced between them. He got a weird expression on his face that Cyrus couldn’t read but then he assembled his face into something Cyrus thought was supposed to be a smile. 

“Come on in and take a seat.” Metcalf stepped aside so that Cyrus and TJ could walk past him into the room. They sat down in the two chairs in front of the desk as Metcalf walked around it and took a seat opposite them both. 

He looked at them for a few seconds and then clasped his hands on top of the desk. “So, I’m guessing you’re wondering why you both are here.” 

“Are we in trouble?” Cyrus blurted out unable to stop himself. TJ looked at Cyrus with worried eyes and then turned back to Metcalf again. 

“Well…” Metcalf started and Cyrus could feel his hands start to sweat again. “It has come to my attention that the two of you have not been following the regulations for Public displays of affection on this school.”

Cyrus blinked at him. 

“_ What? _” TJ said staring at Metcalf as if he couldn’t believe what the man was saying. 

This didn’t make any sense at all. Cyrus and TJ rarely did any PDA at school, or like ever. The most they had done was held hands a few times in the corridors at school but they had never kissed or done anything worse than any of the other couples at the school. 

“Are you two aware of the rules of PDA here at Jeffersons?” Metcalf asked. 

TJ furrowed his brows. “Yeah but, no one at school really follows them.” He and Cyrus exchanged a quick glance. 

“Well they should.” Metcalf said seriously. “And you should as well. We have a zero tolerance stance on PDA here, which includes; kissing, hand holding and any other type of intimate touching.” He handed them both a document which had _ Policy on Public Displays of Affection _ written on the top. “I’m letting you off with a warning but hope that in the future you will remember these rules and follow them so that I won’t have to call you back in again.” He picked up a few papers and started to put them into one of the binders on his desk. 

TJ stared at the paper in his hands with an incredulous look and then looked back at Metcalf. “This is such _ bullshit _.”

Usually, Cyrus would have winced at TJ for swearing in front of Metcalf but now he couldn’t even bother to care. He was upset too. It really wasn’t fair of Metcalf to call the two of them in since there were other couple that had definitely done much worse things when it came to public displays of affection. 

“You’re seriously giving _ us _a warning?” TJ said.

Metcalf looked as if he was trying to remain calm. He took a deep breath and said, slowly “Rules are rules Mr. Kippen and the students here are expected to follow them.”

“This is totally unfair, we've ever only held hands!” TJ countered, raising his voice 

Metcalf seemed to be exercising the full capacity of his patience. “Which is why I’m letting you off with a warning,” he said through gritted teeth.

“But there are couples making out in the hallways all the time!” 

“That obviously isn’t okay either.” Metcalf had started to get red in the face now and seemed to be having a hard time keeping his voice down.

“Then why aren’t they in here?”

“Because we haven’t gotten any complaints about them!” 

Cyrus felt as if the air left the room. An uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach started to form. He exchanged a look with TJ and saw his feelings mirrored in TJ’s face. 

Cyrus turned towards Metcalf again and said, “there’s been complaints?” His voice sounded small to his own ears. 

Metcalf let out a long breath and ran a hand over his face. “Apparently a few parent of some of the student at the school have expressed…” he paused as if searching for the right words. “...concern about their children being exposed to this type of behavior.” He leaned back in his chair and at least had the decency to look apologetic. 

“And by this behavior,” Cyrus said slowly. “You mean two boys holding hands.” It wasn’t really a question. It was pretty clear that the part the parents were concerned about wasn’t the hand holding itself but the fact that it was done by two boys instead of a boy and a girl. 

Metcalf sighed. “Look I’m not trying to be the bad guy here. I’m just trying to please some close minded parents. So I’m afraid that if you participate in any PDA again, I will have to suspend you.”

“And what about the other couples in the school?” TJ asked. 

“I’ll ask everyone to report _ all _signs of PDA that they see on school grounds.” 

“You know that won’t work right? No one will report it.”

Cyrus agreed with TJ. There was no way that teachers would start reporting all the other couples as well and even if they did, no one would stop doing it and it wasn’t like the school could suspend a fourth of the whole school. After a while the teachers would go back to pretending not to notice since it wouldn’t make a difference anyway. But if course Cyrus and TJ, being the only public LGBTQ+ couple on the school, wouldn’t get the same treatment.

“I’ll try my best to make sure that they will,” Metcalf said.

TJ snorted. “Yeah right.”

Metcalf seemed to let TJ’s disrespectful behavior go and instead said, “I’m sorry boys, but there is really nothing else I can do in this situation.” He straightened on his chair and gestured towards the door. ”I suggest you both go back to class now.”

TJ stood up and walked angrily out of the room and Cyrus followed his boyfriend out.

  
  
  


“That is so messed up,” Andi said, later at lunch. TJ and Cyrus has just filled the other guys in on what had been said in Metcalf’s office earlier that day as they all sat at a round table in the school cafeteria. 

Since Cyrus’s and TJ’s names had been called out over the whole school, everyone was now casting interested glances and murmurs their way. Cyrus was doing his best to ignore them and tried to focuse on the chocolate chocolate chip muffin in front of him.

“Yeah,” Jonah agreed. “I saw Megan Miller and Dylan Spade making out by his locker earlier and none of the teachers walking past even gave them a second glance.”

Cyrus made a face. He had seen the couple as well and it had been disturbing to say the least. He couldn’t believe parents would rather have their kids see that than some boys holding hands.

“You guys have to tell your parent so that they can talk to Metcalf.” Andi said. 

Cyrus gave her a look. 

“Oh right, sorry,” she said and gave him an apologetic smile. 

Neither Cyrus nor TJ had come out to their parents, yet let alone told them about the two of them dating. And to be honest, the conversation in Metcalf office hadn’t exactly made Cyrus more excited about the idea of coming out to them.

“What if we do some sort of demonstration?” Jonah said. “To let them know that this isn’t okay.” 

“And risk our parent hearing about it? No way.” Cyrus said and TJ nodded agreeingly. 

“Well we can't just do nothing,” Andi said. 

Cyrus was thankful that they had such great friends that would stick up for them no matter what, but he also knew that they didn’t understand. It wasn’t just about the fact that he and TJ couldn’t hold hands at school anymore. Hearing Metcalf’s words had burst the bubble that he and TJ had been living in since the start of their relationship. Cyrus guessed it had probably been naive for him to think that they would never have to deal with any blatant homophobia, but since they had been out to their small group of friends for a while now, he had sort of forgotten that there were still people that weren’t accepting of people like him and TJ. 

He turned to look at Buffy who had been uncharacteristically quiet during the whole exchange. He soon saw why. Buffy wasn’t focused on their conversation at all and was instead looking to her left at what seemed to have gathered her full attention. He followed her gaze to see what she was looking at.

Ashley Colbert was sitting in Jackson Green’s lap a few tables away. They were surrounded by their friends and they were all laughing at something one of them had said. The teachers on lunch duty weren’t paying them any attention and were definitely not looking as if they were about to report them.

Buffy pressed her lips into a thin line and turned back towards the others. “This is really unfair and not okay _ at all _. We need to do something about it.”

Cyrus definitely agreed about the first part that she had said. It wasn’t fair that the straight couples at school wouldn’t be held accountable in the same way he and TJ were. But it wasn’t as if he would start to rat everyone who did PDA out, that would be a road straight to being the most unpopular person at school. What he really wanted was for the school to just let him and TJ hold hands like all the other couples at the school could. His looked back to where Jackson and Ashley were sitting again and a flare of jealousy erupted inside him. It really wasn’t fair at all. 

“But what can we do?” Cyrus said miserably. He couldn’t come up with anything that wouldn’t involve their parents finding out. 

Buffy got a determined look on her face.

“We’ll think of something.”  
  


“You okay there, Cyrus?” Bex asked later that night.

He and Buffy had spent the afternoon at Andi’s and Bex had invited both of them to stay for dinner. They hadn’t made any progress when it came to the schools PDA accusations so Buffy and Andi had been doing their best to cheer Cyrus up. It wasn’t really working. 

Cyrus had been zoning out during most of the dinner and hadn’t been participating in any of the conversations. He wasn’t really in the mood to be social at the moment. He kept checking his phone below the table to see if TJ had responded to any of his text even though he knew that he wouldn’t. TJ had went straight to basketball practice after school and after that he had tutoring which Cyrus knew wouldn’t end for another hour. 

At Bex words his head snapped up.

“Yeah.” He tried to smile. “Sorry, I’m just a bit tired.” 

Bex studied him for a few seconds. “Are you sure?”

He nodded, picked up his fork and took another bite of the lasagna they were having for dinner. 

Buffy, who was sitting opposite him, widened her eyes as if she had just gotten an idea. She nudged her head in Bex’s direction while still looking at Cyrus. 

Cyrus frowned and shook his head to show her that he didn’t understand. Buffy widened her eyes even more and nudged her head in Bex’s direction again, but Cyrus still didn’t get it. 

Andi, who seemed to have caught onto Buffy’s signals, slowly said. “Buffy, Cyrus, can I talk to you guys in my room?” 

“Yes please,” Buffy said and started to get up. 

“We’ll be right back,” Andi said to a confused looking Bex. Cyrus couldn’t blame her, he was also really confused over what was going on. 

But he stood up and followed Andi and Buffy out of the room. 

“What?” He asked in a low voice when Andi had closed the door behind them. 

“We could ask Bex about what we should do about the school,” Buffy said and pointed to the door that lead out into the kitchen. 

“I think that’s a good idea Buffy,” Andi said and nodded. 

“Right,” Buffy said. “That way you don’t have to tell either of your parents.” 

“And I’m sure Bex would be happy to help,” 

Cyrus thought about what they were saying. It did seem like a pretty good plan.Telling Bex about what had happened wouldn't involve his parents finding out since he was pretty sure Bex would keep his secret if he wanted her to. And maybe Bex would be able to give him some good advice on how to deal with all of this. 

“You really think she would be willing to help?” He asked Andi. 

“Definitely.” Andi said firmly. 

Cyrus felt like an adults opinion would be useful in this situation and Bex had always been really cool. Since she was younger than most parents it somehow made Cyrus even more sure that she wouldn’t react badly to him and TJ being together. 

Right when he was thinking that another thought occurred to him: _ TJ _. This decision involved him too.

“Okay, but I have to check with TJ first if it’s okay with him.” 

  


He didn’t really want to interrupt TJ’s tutoring session but this was really important. He paced around in Andi’s bathroom as he waited for TJ to pick up his phone. He knew TJ wouldn’t check his phone for texts but he hoped he would answer if someone was calling him.

Just when he was about to give up TJ answered the phone.

“Cyrus?” He said.

“Yeah, hi,” Cyrus answered.

“What’s going on? Is something wrong?” Cyrus could hear the distress in TJ’s voice.

“No, no. Nothing’s wrong,” he assured him. “I’m really sorry for calling in the middle of you tutoring but there was something important I had to ask you.”

“It’s fine,” TJ said. “I just told Mrs. Smith that my mom was calling and she let me step out in the hallway. What was it you wanted to ask me?”

“Um, so okay. I’m at Andi’s right now and she and Buffy thinks we should ask Bex for advice about the PDA think and I just wanted to make sure that it was okay with you.” Cyrus sat down on the toilet seat. When TJ didn’t answer for a few seconds he hastily added, “You really don’t have to feel like you have to say yes.”

A couple of more seconds passed. 

“No it’s okay,” TJ said. “You can tell her.”

Cyrus tried to read his tone to make sure that he wasn’t just saying that to please Cyrus, but as far as he could tell TJ was telling the truth. 

“Are you sure?” Cyrus asked just in case.

There was another long paid again.

“Yeah, definitely.” TJ sounded like he wasn’t saying everything he was thinking.

“Is everything alright?” Cyrus asked. 

“Yeah,” TJ answered to quickly but then Cyrus could hear him let out a sigh. “Or I guess not really. This situation is just so messed up, you know.” Cyrus hated the tiredness and hopelessness that laced TJ’s words. 

“I know,” he said, quietly. He saw a box sitting on the sink that had obviously been decorated by Andi. Seashells and colorful pearls covered the lid and Cyrus ran his finger over it absently. In that moment he wouldn’t have minded being a crab and crawling into a shell to hide from everything going on. 

“And it’s not just that either,” TJ continued in a frustrated tone. “This won’t be the last time we’ll have to deal with something like this. Even if we’re able to work something out this time it's bound to happen again.”

This time it was Cyrus turn to be quiet since he didn’t have any idea what to say. Everything TJ was saying was true and there was no point in trying to deny it. People would always have offensive opinions about their relationship and solving one problem wouldn’t automatically solve all the others.

“God, I’m sorry,” TJ said and Cyrus could picture him running a hand through his hair. “I didn’t mean to be so negative.”

“No it’s fine. You have every right to be upset. I’m upset as well.”

They both fell silent for a few seconds but then TJ said, “well, at least we have each other.” 

“Yeah,” Cyrus said, softly. 

“And great friends,” TJ added.

“Amazing friends,” Cyrus agreed. 

He heard TJ let out a long breath.

“I should get back to tutoring,” he said.

“Of course,” Cyrus said and stood up. 

“I’ll call you when I get home.”

  
  
  
  


“So,” Cyrus started when they were all seated around the dinner table again. He hesitated.

“So…” Bex echoed.

Cyrus looked at Andi who gave him an encouraging smile. 

“So, I kind of got in trouble at school.” 

“Wow Cyrus,” Bex said and raised her eyebrows. “You don’t really strike me as a troublemaker. I’m kinda impressed.” 

Cyrus let out an awkward laugh. “Yeah well…” he hesitated again, not really sure what he should say.

Bex seemed to sense that he wasn’t in a joking mood and leaned forward. “What happened?” She asked, tone serious this time. 

Cyrus picked at his food with his fork. “I got in trouble for holding hands,” he said while still looking down at his food.

“Oh?” Bex said.

Cyrus looked up and met her confused gaze. “With a boy.” 

“Oh,” Bex said again. Then the full meaning of Cyrus words seemed to hit her. “_ Oh.” _

“Which is totally unfair since all the other couples never get in trouble for holding hands or kissing or whatever,” Andi said. 

Bex nodded slowly then turned to look at Cyrus again. “What happened exactly?”

Cyrus told her about being sent to the Principal's office and about what Metcalf had said. 

“And I’m guessing this boy is someone you like,” Bex said when he had finished.

Cyrus nodded. “Yeah it was my boyfriend. TJ.”

Bex’s eyes narrowed. “Wait, TJ Kippen? The basketball captain?” Her eyes went to Andi who just nodded.

“Huh,” Bex said and leaned back in her chair again. “Well this really isn’t okay Cyrus and something definitely has to be done. Have you told your parents about it? Maybe they can talk to the principal for you?”

Cyrus almost winced at her words. “Well, me and TJ aren’t really out to any of our parents yet so we can’t really ask them for help.” 

Bex’s face turned into one of sympathy at his words. “I see,” she said softly. Then her face of sympathy turned into a determined one. “Well, then I’ll talk to the school.”

Cyrus could feel his eyes go wide. “You would do that?” He asked, surprise evident in his voice. 

“Of course,” Bex said, “we can’t let the school treat you like that. I’ll call the Metcalf and have him set up a meeting with the parents that made the complaint.”

Cyrus looked at her gratefully. “Thank you.”

“Of course, kiddo,” Bex said.

Buffy gave Cyrus a smile. “See Cyrus, everything is going to be just fine.”

Cyrus tried to smile back. He knew that this wouldn’t be the end of his and TJ’s troubles but in that moment he really wanted to believe her. 

  
  


A week later Bex found herself seated next to three other parents in the principal’s office. They were all seated opposite Metcalf who was looking uncomfortable to say the least. 

When Cyrus had come out to her last week she had definitely been very surprised. She remembered Cyrus having a girlfriend a couple of years ago and she remembered him going on and on about the girl so she had never pondered the possibility of him liking boys. Not that him liking girls meant that he couldn’t like boys, Bex knew that better than most, but she guessed that she probably hadn’t spent much time thinking about Cyrus Goodman’s sexuality at all. Which was a good thing, she thought, since doing that would have been very weird.

What surprised Bex even more than Cyrus dating a boy, was that the boy in question was TJ Kippen, basketball captain and former enemy to Buffy and therefore by extension: Cyrus and Andi. She remembered Andi telling her that TJ and Buffy were on good terms now and she knew that he sometimes hung out with all of them, but she didn’t know all the details about how it all happened. But now she was almost positive Cyrus had played a big roll in the matter. 

Metcalf cleared his throat awkwardly before saying, “thank you all for coming to meet me here today. I really hope that we can all settle on an agreement that will leave everyone happy about the…” he paused as if to search for the right word. “...Situation,” he settled on. 

Bex did her best not to roll her eyes but she probably didn’t succeed, because Metcalf’s eyes settled on her and he said, “Mrs. Mack. Please tell us about your feelings on the… situation.” 

Bex gave him a fake polite smile. “My feelings on the _ situation _ is that it’s completely unfair to tell these two boys to stop holding hands when all the other couples are free to do as much PDA as they want.” 

“That’s not what’s going on here at all. All the students at Jefferson’s are required to follow the regulation the school has-“ Bex interrupted him.

“Oh please, you and I both know there is no way that you’re going to get all the boys and girls to stop doing PDA at the school. So what I’m saying is that you should allow Cyrus and TJ to be treated like every other couple at the school. If they want to hold hands, they should get to hold hands. 

The man next to her cleared his throat and spoke up. “I don’t think you can compare two boys holding hands with a boy and a girl holding hands.” 

Bex turned to him. “Excuse me?”

The woman next to the man nodded. “I agree and I just don’t think it’s appropriate for other kids to come in contact with those kinds of people.”

“Those kinds of people?” Bex echoed with a frown. 

“I just don’t want my son exposed to it,” the same woman tried to clarify.

“Exposed to what!?” Bex exclaimed. “_ Hand holding? _”

“I’m sorry, but shouldn’t we be having this conversation with the boys actual parents instead?” The woman to Bex’s far left asked.

“I don’t have to be their parent to know that you are all homophobic assholes,” Bex all but sneered. She realized that she probably shouldn’t talk like that in front of her daughter’s Principal but she couldn’t help it. These people were completely unreasonable and she had had enough. 

“You know what?” She said and tried to calm down a little bit. “I feel really bad for all of your kids.” The three parents looked at her with confused expressions. “I would be so ashamed _ and _disgusted, if my parents ever did something like this,” the woman in the middle looked down at her lap. “And imagine if any of them were gay or bisexual or pan sexual or-“ she took a deep breath. “How would they ever feel comfortable enough to come out to their parents knowing that their parents couldn’t even deal with two young boys holding each other hands huh?

“And I promise you this, seeing TJ and Cyrus hold hands isn’t gonna turn your kid gay or whatever. And I really hope, _ for their sake _, that if they are gay, they have some other people to turn to for love and support, since they obviously have trash for parents.”

She paused and waited for anyone else to speak up but no one did. Not one of the parents would even meet her gaze. 

“So here's what’s gonna happen,” she turned to Metcalf. “You are gonna let TJ and Cyrus hold hands and do all of the PDA the rest of the couples at the school are allowed to do.” Metcalf looked as if he was about to protest but Bex continued. “_ Or, _I’m gonna report the school for discrimination and I really don’t think you want me to do that.” 

She raised her eyebrows as if to challenge him but Metcalf only nodded. Satisfied with his reaction, she turned towards the three parents. 

“And you _ people _,” she said to mirror the way the woman had talked about TJ and Cyrus. “You are just going to have to deal with two boys holding hands whether you like it or not because at the end of the day, it really isn’t any of your business.” 

She stood up and walked towards the door but turned around in the last minute. “And I think you should seriously consider the way you’ve dealt with this situation in front of your kids. It might have a bigger impact on them than you think.” She turned around again and walked out of the door. 

  
  


Cyrus paced nervously back and forth in front of Bex’s car as he and TJ waited for her to get out of the meeting. Buffy, Andi and Jonah had all had other stuff to attend to so they had left half an hour ago when last period ended. 

But he and TJ had decided to stay and wait until the meeting was over. It seemed to be the reasonable thing to do but now Cyrus has started to regret it. The wait was like torture and he thought he might be about to crawl out of his skin with all the anxiety he was feeling. Of course, waiting at home probably wouldn’t have been any better. 

“Hasn’t she been in there for a really long time now? I mean shouldn’t she be out already.”

TJ, who was sitting at the curb next to the car, looked up from his phone at Cyrus’s words. “She’s only been in there for like 15 minutes,” he said. 

“Really? I feel like it’s been longer.” He continued to pace. 

He could feel TJ staring at him. After a while TJ said. “It’s going to be okay Cyrus, you know that right?” 

“Is it? Because I feel like there are about hundred ways this could all go wrong.” Cyrus stopped in front of TJ and looked at him with what he could only guess looked like panic. “What if Metcalf decides to call our parents or what if the other parents decide to call our parents. Or what if they decide to ban PDA all together and everyone will hate us for being the ones that made-“ Cyrus frantic rambling was interrupted by Bex coming out of the entrance of the school. 

Cyrus felt himself freeze and then felt an odd sensation, like ice was filling his veins. He tried to ask Bex what had happened at the meeting but found that he couldn’t talk at all. 

Luckily TJ didn’t seem to have lost that ability and as soon as he saw Bex he stood up and positioned himself next to Cyrus. “How did it go?” He asked and even though he had seemed calm earlier, Cyrus could hear nervousness creeping into his words.

Bex walked up to them and gave them a reassuring smile. “You’re all set boys. The school won’t bother you about hand holding anymore.” 

TJ let out a sigh of release. 

“Metcalf really agreed to that?” Cyrus asked incredulously. 

“Well I didn’t give him much of a choice and told him that it was either agreeing to that or else I was gonna report the school.” 

Cyrus was impressed. He and the others had talked about reporting the school but they knew that wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by their parents. But using it as a threat without actually planning to do it was really smart since Metcalf obviously wouldn’t have had a reason to doubt Bex actually doing it.

“And the parents?” TJ asked. “Were they fine with it as well?” 

“They’ll have to be,” Bex said firmly. “Besides, there isn’t really anything they could do about it as well.” 

TJ nodded slowly but Cyrus could tell he was still a bit troubled. He turned towards Bex and said, “thank you for doing this. Really.”

“Of course,” Bex said and shrugged in a way that reminded Cyrus about how young she actually was. “Do you guys need a ride?” 

“No it’s okay I think we’re just gonna call my mom to pick us up,” TJ said but Bex quickly shook her head. 

“Nonsense,” she said. “I’ll drive you”

“Are you sure?” Cyrus asked. He felt like Bex had done so much for them already and he felt kind of bad for asking for more favors.

“Yeah, it’s really no problem.” 

Cyrus and TJ both got into the backseat of the car while Bex started the car. 

“Do you both want to be dropped off at home or?”

TJ looked at Cyrus and he nodded. 

“Actually I think we’re both gonna hang out at my place so you can drop us off there if that’s okay,” TJ said.

“No problem,” Bex said and TJ gave her his address. 

The car ride continued in silence with each of them wrapped up in their own thoughts.

Cyrus couldn’t help but think of the conversation he and TJ had on the phone yesterday. He was really relieved that the whole thing had worked out but he also knew that it was only a matter of time before something like that happened again. 

“Hey, you know it’s not always gonna be like this right?” Bex said suddenly. She met Cyrus gaze in the rear view mirror and seemed to realize that her words hadn’t worked to cheer Cyrus up because she continued, “I mean, I know there are a lot of assholes in the world, but there are a lot of decent ones as well.” She let out a sigh. “And I really wish there was a way for you to never encounter the assholes but sadly I don’t think there is. But you have to remember that you’ll always have people that are on your side, no matter what.” 

Cyrus was thankful for what she was trying to do and even though it didn’t work fully, he still felt a little bit better after hearing her words. 

“Yeah,” Cyrus said softly.

Bex looked at them through the rear view mirror,with worried eyes. “Are you boys gonna be okay?”

“Yeah we’ll be fine,” TJ said and gave Cyrus a small smile. He reached over and interlaced their fingers. 

“Yeah,” Cyrus agreed and smiled back at him. 

He knew that there were probably tougher days to come and that it wouldn’t always be easy but he also knew what Bex said was true: There were good people out there as well. And as long as they had good people in their corner, they would be fine. 

And he had this amazing boy beside him that he knew would make everything worth it.

When they arrived at TJ’s house, he and TJ got out of the car and thanked Bex for everything she had done. 

“It really wasn’t a big deal,” she assured them. “I’ll see you later.” 

“See you!” Cyrus said and waved.

Bex put on a pair of sunglasses and just as TJ was about to close the door to the car, she spoke again. 

“And if you boys ever need help with dealing with annoying homophobes, you know where to find me.” 

**Author's Note:**

> So I actually have no idea how PDA regualtions work in the US and how much PDA is allowed in middle school so this is completely hypothetical!
> 
> hope you enjoyed.


End file.
